Her Name is Evergreen
by Chirinah
Summary: They were all so into basketball, they barely had time for anything else. As much as they are admired, nobody expected any of them to have girlfriends. Akashi least of all. As it turns out, they have complicated romances too. Akashi most of all.
1. Prologue

**Her name is Evergreen, Akashi's girlfriend, that is.**

 **She has long blond hair, so pale it's almost white, and eyes as blue as the summer sky. She has angel-like features that can only be described as beautiful, and a small and willowy frame as dainty as a princess.**

 **Anyone with even just a touch of common sense will be able to see her prestige.**

 **She's raised alongside Akashi, their families being close business partners for generations. She's been trained in all the same things he was, and she's just as skilled if not more.**

 **Romantics will call this a childhood friend romance, but it's really nothing that nice.**

 **Neither of them are nice people after all.**


	2. Chapter 1

If there was a person who could make Akashi the Emperor bow down, it was her. Had she been there during middle school, he wouldn't have acted the way he did. He wouldn't have ruined their team.

Still, she wasn't. And it was all done.

Akashi thought of her rarely, he had enough practice keeping her in the corner of his mind over the years. He filled his mind with thoughts of other things, of other people. He filled his days with activity, drove his body to exhaustion he wouldn't have the energy even for dreams.

Otherwise, he wouldn't stop obsessing about her. Her beautiful face, her long silvery blond hair, her blue eyes. Her smile alone could keep him awake for a whole night. Her laughter drove him to madness.

So he stopped thinking about her.

Because thinking about her comes with the knowing that she was gone, that she was far away, where he couldn't reach her, couldn't hold her hand, couldn't touch her face…

That pain was something he couldn't take.

Evergreen was his weakness.

Akashi was her strength.

The thought of him anchored her, kept her from the darkness. The image of her bright red hair, his arrogant smile, they lulled her to sleep and drove away the nightmares.

Memories of their time together pushed her through the tedious days of endless studies and parties where she had to smile for hours on end. His voice, so clear in her head, moved her forward, through nights and days of pretending to be perfect in front of undoubtedly worthless people.

Acting like a perfect lady exhausted her, but the thought of seeing him once the ordeal was over made it almost bearable. She couldn't wait for five years to end.


	3. Chapter 2

Akashi woke up at the sound of his alarm clock but didn't get up. The tiny box hadn't stopped ringing, but he was far too deep in his thoughts to listen.

'It's today.'

She's coming back today.

Akashi didn't know how to feel about that.

He had expected to feel pain, the pain he was so familiar with, once he let himself go through the archives filled with her. He didn't though, and it surprised him. Instead he felt…normal. He's a bit anxious about their first meeting in five years, but he didn't feel anything else.

It seems, just as he was with everything else, he became too good at shutting her out.

Evergreen couldn't stop shaking. The whole time she was in the plane, she kept asking for water because her throat kept running dry. She kept looking out the window, checking her watch, counting the time until she could see him again.

It was too long.

Too long.

A chauffeur was sent to fetch her from the airport, from there she'd go to her house to change before coming to Akashi's house.

Every luggage she had looked like it's been ransacked by bandits by the time she finished looking for the right clothes. The maids had laughed at her because she kept restyling and restyling her hair, putting and removing make-up.

In the end she let one of them do it for her, because her hands were shaking too much; she kept on smudging her face with mascara.

Back in the car, it took all she had not to vomit. She was so nervous!

What would he say? What would he think of her? Would he find her pretty? What if she didn't suit his standards?

She had been receiving pictures of Akashi once a month, as per her request, but she didn't know if he had asked for the same thing. What if he forgot about her?

She had kept her doubts at bay when she was at school, because she wouldn't have been able to take it. But now that she was thirty minutes away, all the negativity she had pushed away had come rushing back to her in one painful wave.

She tried so hard not to cry.

Akashi was dressed as casually as he could. It was daytime, and they didn't have plans for a fancy lunch, so he wore faded jeans and white printed shirt. It was summer after all. Once he combed his hair, he was as good as done, and all he had left to do was wait for her.

Wait for her as he had done for five years.

He still wasn't feeling anything except the same mild anxiety he had when he woke up. When he thought about it, he realized her memories were all those of a child. The way she cried when she left was the cry of a child. The way she smiled during their games was the smile of a child.

But he wasn't a child anymore, and she couldn't be either.

He laughed when he realized he didn't even know how she looked like anymore. He remembered the child, but that was five years ago. She'd have gone through puberty by now. She'd have grown taller, fuller, more… more what?

What did he know about her?

What did he feel for her?

He didn't remember.

Five minutes before they arrived, Evergreen managed to calm down. She had collected herself, and she made for a look that's been taught to her for ages. Straight back. Calm face. A warm smile.

She remembered how she hated practicing that smile. She had thought, "Why should I have to practice smiling? Shouldn't it come naturally? When I'm happy?"

It wasn't long before she realized happiness was hard to come by in the world, and appearances meant more than feelings.

It didn't sit well with her that she's doing that fake smile now, but it was better than being the mumbling mess she was just earlier.

She wanted to look good.

The butler called him from his room at exactly 10:03. He just about begged his heart to beat faster, to be nervous, to care…because his indifference hurt more than anything he ever felt before. He felt like he lost something, but he couldn't get it back.

He sighed and went for the door. He felt his heart beat just a little faster, and smiled.

He hadn't lost everything yet.


	4. Chapter 3

His house looked familiar. As Evergreen stood outside the front door, she remembered feeling extremely small seeing this palace-like place. It seemed so huge to her twelve year old self, but after seeing real castles in Europe, it didn't seem all that wonderful anymore.

But her heart still tingled.

She couldn't help but smile.

She was back.

She was back. Akashi could see her from the window of the drawing room on the third floor. He couldn't see much of her face, she covered it with her hand as she looked up the house, but he could see her frame.

It was nice.

She was still small, but he could make out the subtle curves beneath her clothes. Her hair was longer than the shoulder length she had when they were ten years old. He could bet she didn't cut her hair once these past five years. It was reaching past her bottom and just around her knees.

It, too, had beautiful curves.

She was wearing red—her favorite color from what he remembered.

He couldn't say it looked bad.

A maid opened the large French doors for her, and inside she was approached by Akashi Masaomi, Akashi Seijuro's father with a polite smile.

He was as intimidating as she remembered, but she smiled brightly and bowed. "It's been a long time, Uncle," she said, getting up.

The older man held out an arm, which she took, and led her up the stairs to the drawing room.

On the way, they exchanged polite small talk and tight lipped smiles, and then he left her in the room for his son to deal with.

Looking at the real Akashi after getting by with pictures for so long made her brain freeze. Only the conditioned responses imbued into her by her mother came out of her mouth.

"Hello," she said. "It's been a while."

Seeing her up close pretty much took the breath right out of Akashi's lungs.

She was incredibly pretty.

Her face was just as he remembered, except of course she was bigger. _Like an angel._ Puberty had been good to her, and the curves he'd seen from above earlier looked more pronounced from up close.

And so he said, "You look pretty."

All the blood in her body rushed to Evergreen's face. Her happiness flowed like water through her system, and she stopped functioning on auto-pilot.

She laughed and said sincerely, "You look good, too, Sei-kun. I missed you."

Akashi startled when she laughed. He felt giddy, and he had the urge to run to her and smother her in hugs and kisses and never let go. Just one look at her had awakened the sleeping emotions he had buried in the past five years, and it crashed into him all at once.

His breath catching, he answered, "I missed you too."


	5. Chapter 4

Evergreen fell quickly into old habits. She hung by Akashi's arms and smiled genuinely, chattering about her experiences the past five years. Akashi listened attentively, entranced by her shining face and bright tones.

She was sent to study middle school and high school in the female boarding school where her mother had been. She had compromised, saying she would go without a fuss (she didn't really have a choice, but her parents had indulged her with one wish) if she'd be allowed to take her last year of high school with Seijuro.

The boarding school gave emphasis to female etiquette and manners, forcing her to act like the perfect lady, while her heart sings running around and climbing trees. She was an outdoor person, Akashi had known, and he knew it would've been so hard to keep her indoors for five years.

At least he was allowed basketball.

The two of them had always been like puppets to their families, pushing expectations into them that wouldn't have been asked of a normal child. They barely had any freedom at all, and Akashi realized the girl had it rougher than him.

She was forced to act nice to people she hated in a daily basis and forbidden to pursue sports due to her families conservative beliefs. He wouldn't have been able to do that. He couldn't be nice, especially to people who annoyed him. And he would have died had he not been allowed to play basketball, which his father considered a pointless exercise.

He felt his heart surging with pride for this small girl in his arm.

"You're amazing," he said, startling Evergreen before her face turned beet red.

"You-you think so?" Evergreen stuttered in disbelief.

Seijuro smiled, "I know so."

Evergreen was happy. She really was. In the week before the opening week of school, she and Seijuro had gone on countless dates (well, it was seven, but meh) and she couldn't remember ever feeling this good in her entire life.

Seijuro, on his part, seemed content around the little silver lady, although she couldn't stop talking most of the time. She spoke of her time abroad, of all the places she's been, the _annoying_ people she met, the food. Really, she talked about everything.

They went to different places in Japan, ate local delicacies, went on strolls, took pictures. For all the time they've been apart, they so easily became comfortable to going back to their previous relationship: childhood friends heading somewhere else. In all these places, they turned heads, garnered attention. To the passersby, they looked like the perfect couple. To Evergreen, they already were. To Akashi…well, he wasn't letting go of this girl any time soon.


End file.
